Randomly Amplified Polymorphic Dna-a Brief Review

RAPD is a PCR based technique which involves the use of single arbitrary short primers (8-12 nucleotides), resulting in the amplification of many discrete DNA.The segments of DNA that are amplified are random.The technique was developed independently by two different laboratories and called as RAPD and AP-PCR (Arbitrary Primed PCR).This procedure detects nucleotide sequence polymorphisms in a DNA amplification based assay using only a single primer of arbitrary nucleotide sequence.The RAPD technology has provided a quick and efficient screen for DNA-sequence polymorphisms at a very large no of loci.The present communication gives emphasis on basic knowledge about RAPD, procedure, its advantages disadvantages, limitations and applications of RAPD.